“Nicaragua ain’t for sissies, but it’s got a lot of soul. Folks accustomed to life in the US need an incredibly adventurous spirit if they are to adjust to Nicaragua. Life is challenging here, for everyone. If you’re from the US, forget the creature comforts of home. But the reward is that one develops intimate relationships with the people and…

Any traveler who has ever set foot on the strikingly surreal island of Ometepe knows all to well the trials and tribulations of the journey to get there. This is especially true if your goal was an early arrival. Our passage to Ometepe started at approximately 5:45Am in San Juan del Sur. Catching the first bus back to the hub…

Plenty of people have hiked a volcano. More adventurous would be hiking an active volcano with flowing red lava (here’s thinking of you Volcan Pacaya), but I had never heard of Volcano Boarding until our recent trip to Nicaragua. From Leon, adventurers can hop on a truck and head to Cerro Negro, Nicaragua‘s youngest active volcano, and board down. Yes,…

Snowboarding? Sure. Skateboarding? Of course! But Volcano Boarding?!!! You betcha! But only in Nicaragua… 25 Kilometers northeast of the colonial city León, lies Volcan Cerro Negro. This volcano is one of the younger volcanoes in the area (less than 200 years old), but also one of the most unique. Thanks to a 1999 eruption and constant volcanic activity, Cerro Negro lacks…

We stopped about halfway up the volcano to catch our breath. The rain had just start letting up and Babs wasn’t sure how long our window was before it would start pouring down again (or before one of us would be struck by lightning). She gave us the Reader’s Digest informational speech on Cerro Negro to speed up our downtime….

Today was the day we were going volcano boarding (more accurately, volcano tobogganing) in Cerro Negro. This Cerro Negro event sold me on Holly Beck’s retreat and I was so ready to go. How often do you get to hike up and then board down the world’s most active cinder-cone volcano? My point exactly. We had taken off around noon…